Year after year, the festival’s short cinematic delicacies attract thousands of film fans to the venues in and around Casinotheater, appealing to industry representatives and the general audience alike. The International and Swiss Competitions are at the heart of the festival and at the pulse of current filmmaking from around the world, offering awards with a total value over CHF 57,000. Under certain conditions, films of the Kurzfilmtage competitions qualify for nomination consideration for the OSCAR®, the British Academy Film Award BAFTA, the Swiss Film Award Quartz, and the Zurich Film Award Cadrage. In addition to the competitions, Kurzfilmtage shows scrupulously curated short film programmes, which contextualize their themes against a wider cultural background. We screen historic as well as contemporary films, with programmes that focus on social issues, give insight into institutions, or highlight the oeuvre of individual filmmakers and artists.

As a Swiss centre of expertise on short film, Kurzfilmtage is also dedicated to the promotion of Swiss shorts. The festival hosts the «Kurzfilmnacht-Tour» (Short Film Night) across Switzerland and maintains the country’s largest short film archive, which is available to professionals for research purposes all year round. We also curate short film programmes for other festivals, private companies, and public institutions, such as the ICA London, the Museum of Communication in Bern, the Zurich Film Festival, or the Basel Historical Museum.